Suspended railway



(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

Y J. THOMSON.

SUSPENDED RAILWAY.

No. 405.059. Patented June 11, 1 889.

HIHIIII H W/T/VELSSES: INVENTOR.

. BY L I ATTORNEYS.

N, PETERS. FholuLmlcgnbhar. Wishinglon, D C.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 2. J. THOMSON.

SUSPENDED RAILWAY.

No. 405,059. Patented June 11, 1889.

WITNESSES:

ATTORNEYS.

N, PETERS. Phnlwum nmer, Walhinglum m0.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets- Sheet 3. J. THOMSON.

SUSPENDED RAILWAY.

No. 405,059. PatentedJune 11, 1889.

@2774 W M v w 75 4 ZJ/ ATTORNEYS.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

J. THOMSON.

SUSPENDED RAILWAY.

No. 405,059. Patented June 11 1889.

S ries of Buckets Gcraflmatecl in Wet i5 [at INVE/IITUH:

ATTORNEYS.

WITNESSES:

N. PUERS. Photoulho m nor. Washington. D. c.

" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN THOMSON, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

SUSPENDED RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 405,059, dated June 11, 1889. Application filed July 16, 1888. Serial No. 280,101. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JOHN THOMSON, of Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Suspended Railways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention is an improvement in the class of excavating apparatus which includes an elevated railway or track, a series of carriages traveling thereon, and a like series of buckets, which are suspended from said carriages and adapted to be raised and lowered by suitable suspending ropes or chains. Heretofore a hoisting rope or chain has ordinarily been provided for each bucket; but in my system I employ but one such rope or chain for a series of buckets, and the arrangement is such that all the buckets are raised successively, one ata time,by said rope. Thus, however great may be the whole number of buckets employed, the power required to be expended on the hoisting-rope in the operation of elevating them never exceeds at any one time the power necessary to raise one bucket of the series, and when the buckets have been all successively elevated by the single rope or chain the carriages from which they are suspended are hauled together along the track by the same means.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a partial side elevation of the track and a vertical section through the retaining-carriage. Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the said retaining-carriage. Fig. 3 is a section on line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a section on line 4 4 of Fig. 1. Figs. 5 and 6 are rear and side views of the bucket-hooks and attached locking devices; and Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a series of buckets suspended from the railway, illustrating the operation of the system.

In carrying out the invention a suitable structure is built where it is proposed to dig a ditch or trench, and extending to a point where it is desirous to deliver. the dirt or other material taken from the excavation, which structure consists of a base 10, a series of spaced vertical standards 11, and a track 12, suspended horizontally from said standards, which track is preferably inclined slightly. Upon the said track a series of carriages 13 are adapted to travel, which carriages consist of parallel metal sides 14, united by suitable bolts 15. Between the sides of the carriage, at or near'the center, a funnel-shaped casing 16 is secured, ext3nding from its bottom to about its center, as best shown in Fig. 1, the flaring end of said funnel-shaped casing being the lower end thereof. Slightly above the said funnelshaped easing transverse bars 17 are secured, one at each end of the carriage, upon one of which two horizontal fingers 18 are pivoted, which fingers are adapted to project horizontally beyond the opposite end of the carriage, their extremities 19 being curved in opposite directions, as best shown in Fig. 3.

The fingers 18 rest upon the bar 17 opposite to that upon which they are pivoted, being held normally a suitable distance apart through the medium of a vertical pin 20, and the said fingers are held in engagement with the said pin by springs 21 and 22, the springs 21 being attached to the inner sides of the carriage and bowed to a connection with the outer edges of the several fingers, the outer extremities of the said springs 21 being secured to the said springs 22, the latter being made to bear upon the sides of the carriage at a point contiguous to the bowed section of spring 21. Upon the center of each of the lower connecting bars or bolts 15 a grooved pulley 23 is journaled, and above the fingers 18 a transverse stop-bar 24 is secured.

All the carriages employed are constructed alike and as above described with the exception of one end carriage, which I for convenience designate a retaining-carriage. The retaining-carriage differs only in that it has but one pulley 23 instead of two, the rope 25, which raises the buckets, being attached to a grommet 23, through which one of said rods 15 passes, as shown in Fig. 1.

In attaching the funnel 16 to the carriages a rectangular frame 26 is ordinarily secured to the side pieces of the same at or near their center, which plate is provided with a threaded aperture 26', adapted to receive the neck of the funnel-casing.

The top, the bottom, and the ends of the several carriages are preferably left open, and in said top rollers or wheels 27 are journaled, which rollers are adapted to travel upon the track 12, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 7.

The several carriages are connected through the medium of coupling-bars 28, the said bars being secured to each end of the carriages, one bar upon each side, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

In the bottom of the track 12 one end of a latch 29 is pivoted,which latch,when the carriages are in their normal position, is adapted to engage the stop-bar 24c, and to that end the free extremity of said latch is provided with a recess 30, as best shown in Fig. 1. In other words, said latch has at its free end a shoulder 30, which is shown engaged with the stopbar 24. A rigid arm 31 projects vertically from such free end and serves as a handle for raising the bar 29 out of contact with the stop 2%. This handle 31 is shown mainly in dotted lines, Fig. 1, and the alternative or raised position of both the bar 29 and said handle 81 is also shown mainly by dotted lines. To hold them thus elevated, at cross-pin may be inserted in a hole shown in the handle 31. In front of each of the carriages (when the same are in their normal position) a trip-bar 32 is pivoted at 32 and between the lower portions of tracks and extends vertically downward and engages the curved extremities of the carriage-fingers 18 to separate the same.

\Vhen not in use the trip-bar 32, the under surface of which is cylindrical, is retained in a horizontal position within the track through the medium of a spring-lever 33, fulcrumed at 38, Fig. 1, in the track to the rear of said bar and provided with a latch-head 34:, the upper end of which spring-lever extends above the track, as illustrated in Fig. 1. \Vhen the trip-bar is thrown to a horizontal position, the free end of the said trip-bar is engaged by the latch-head 34, as illustrated in the same figure in dotted lines. In front of the lever 33 a perpendicular standard 34: is secured to the top of the track, said lever and standard being connected by a horizontal rod 35, and the lever is provided with an aperture which is large enough to permit the rod to slide freely through it. A spring 36 is coiled upon the said rod 35, bearing again st the contiguous faces of the lever33 and the standard 34:, whereby the former is kept in position to at all times engage with the trip-bar 32 when the latter is thrown upward. To release the trip-bar and allow the same to drop, a rod 87 is secured to the upper end of the lever 33, passing through the standard 31, and to said rod a rod 38 is attached, leading downward to an y convenient point.

The buckets 30, adapted for attachment to the carriages, are made of different weights, the bucket carried by the forward or retaining carriage being heavier than the one next thereto, and the next heavier than the one following, and so 011, thus causing the last bucket to be the lightest of all. Each bucket is provided with a sheave and hook, ordinarily consisting of a longitudinally-slotted. body 40, in which a pulley -11 is journaled, the hook 42 being integral with the lower end of said body, as best illustrated in Figs. 4, 5, and 6. If found desirable, in order to remove the carrying-ropes readily, an opening 43 may be made in one side of the body near the bottom, as best shown in Fig. 5, and a hasp hinged thereto to cover said opening, which hasp is secured by passing over the journal-pin of the roller and an apertured lug projecting from the body, a pin being passed through the journal and lug outside the hasp.

The body of the sheave and hook, which for convenience I denominate a latch-sheave, is provided at its upper end with a neck let, having a semi-spherical head 45 and an annu lar recess 46 beneath said head, whereby opposing square shoulders 47 areobtained, as illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6.

The recess in the neck of each latch-sheave, except that employed in connection with the retainirig-carriage, is of a length about equal to the thickness of the earriage-fingers 1.8. The recess or reduced portion of the remaim ing latch-sheave, as illustrated in Fig. 1, is much longer, and the lower shoulder is beveled, as illustrated at 48 in the same figure.

The heads 45 of the latch-sheaves are adapted at the proper moment to enter the funnels 16 of the carriages and pass up through an aperture 50 between the fingers 18, immediately above the funnel, as best shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the aperture 50 being formed by producing an aligning semicircular recess in the opposing edges of the said parallel fingers, as best shown in Fig. 3.

The carriages being in position upon the track, the carrying-rope 25 is secured to the grommet 23 on bar 15 of the retaining-carriage and carried downward under the pulley in the forward latch-sheave, carrying the heaviest bucket. From thence the rope 25 is carried upward over the pulley 23 of said retaining-carriage, over the forward pulley 23 of the next carriage, thence downward through the latchsheave of said carriage, up over the second carriage-pulley, and so on until each carriage and latch-sheave are connected by the same rope, as shown in Fig. 7.

The rope 25 is now carried through two pulleys 51 at the end of the track and back over the same to a suitable windin g-dru1n. A second rope 52 is attached to the lower forward end of the retaining-carriage, which latter rope is led to a seconddrum purposed to brin back the carriages when the buckets have been emptied.

To each carriage two downwardly-cxtending stay-rods 53 are attached, adapted to engage the side of the buckets when elevated and steady the same against lateral movement.

In operation, when the buckets are all filled and in the ditch, the drum connected IlO with the carrying-rope 25 is revolved, whereupon the said rope is tightened, and the last bucket, being the lightest, is drawn upward until the head of the latch-sheave entering the funnel of the last carriage presses the fingers therein apart, and, passing up through the aperture 50, is locked in said carriage by the recoil of the fingers. Thus the weight of that bucket is relieved from the drum. The other buckets to the rear of the forward bucket are in like manner and in turn elevated in their several carriages. The forward bucket is finally elevated, and as the recess or neck of the latch-sheave of this bucket is longer than inthe others the head passing through the aperture 50 in the fingers is brought in engagement with the carriage-latch 29,'raising the same against the pressure of the gravity locking-lever 31, as illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The stop-bar 30 being thus released, the entire train of carriages passes down the track.

The distance between the carriages may be regulated by lengthening or shortening the coupling-bars. I desire it to be distinctly understood that, although I have described specific construction, other equivalent construction maybe employed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

If found desirable, the stay-rods 53 may be constructed of three leaf-springs suitably connected, having their lower ends bent in to form fingers.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with a track and a series of carriages adapted to travel thereon and having pulleys journaled in their lower portions, of a corresponding series of buckets of graduated weights, a like series of latchsheaves adapted for connection with said buckets, and a rope which is secured to the forward carriage of the series and then passes successively through each latch-sheave and over the pulleys of each carriage of the combined series, as shown and described, whereby the said rope serves as the means of hoisting all the said buckets successively, as set forth.

2. The combination, with a track, a series of carriages traveling thereon having pulleys journaled in their lower ends, and a series of buckets of graduated weight, of latch-sheaves adapted to engage said buckets, and a rope secured to the forward carriage, passing alternately over the carriage-pulleys and through the latch-sheaves, substantially as shown and described.

3. The combination, with a track, a series of carriages traveling thereon having pulleys journaled in their lower ends, and a series of buckets graduated in weight from the forward to the rear, the forward bucket being the heaviest, of latch-sheaves adapted to engage said buckets, and a rope secured tothe forward carriage, passing alternately over the carriage pulleys and through the latchsheaves, as and for the purpose specified.

at. The combination, with a track, a series of carriages traveling thereon having pulleys journaled in their lower ends, a series of buckets graduated in weight from the front to the rear, the heaviest bucket being at the front, and latch-sheaves adapted to carry said buckets, of stayrods projected downward from the carriage, a rope secured to the forward carriage, passing alternately over the carriage pulleys and through the latchsheaves, and means, substantially as shown and described, for locking the latch-sheaves in the carriages and releasing said carriages, as and for the purpose specified.

5. The combination, with a track, a series of carriages traveling thereon having pulleys journaled in their lower ends, coupling-rods uniting said carriages, a series of buckets graduated in weight from front to rear, the rear bucket being the lightest, and latchsheaves adapted to carry said buckets, of a rope secured to the forward carriage, passing alternately over the carriage -pulleys and through the latch-sheaves, and means, substant-ially as shown and described, for locking the carriages upon the track and automatically releasing the same, as set forth.

6. The combination, with a track, a train of united carriages traveling upon the same, a transverse stop-bar secured in the said carriages, and pulleys journaled therein, and a gravity-latch pivoted in the track engaging the stop-bar of the forward carriage, of a series of buckets graduated in weight, latchsheaves attached to said buckets, and a rope secured to the forward carriage, passing alternately over the carriage-pulleys and through thelatch-sheaves, substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified, whereby the buckets are raised alternately from the rear and the carriages released when elevated, as set forth.

Ms. W. HAMILTON, GEO. E. LAKE. 

